Starting with 2010 Release 1, REALbasic is now known as REAL Studio. Here are the new edition names:

There is a recent thread on the REAL Software forums asking why REALbasic isn’t more popular. I’d say one of the main reasons that REALbasic is not as popular as it could be is because of its name. I have high hopes for the new REAL Studio name. Unfortunately, when it comes to programming languages, the term Basic gets a bad rap. Even in the .NET world, where there is practically no difference between C# and VB.NET, there are lots of developers that turn their nose down on VB.NET and assume it is inferior.

The problem with Basic

Personally, I don’t think it’s possible to fix the perception problem with Basic. When you mention Basic, people still think:

10 PRINT "PAUL"
20 GOTO 10
RUN

Basic’s accessibility has always been considered a weakness by many who call themselves professionals. Because it is so accessible, just about anyone can learn enough to use it to make software. And if that software doesn’t end up being very good, people tend to blame the tool instead of the inexperienced programmer. But the accessibility of Basic is also its greatest strength. There are plenty of people who aren’t professional programmers but are experts in their business domain. These people can use a tool like REAL Studio to create simple application to make their lives easier. And if they need more sophisticated software, they can turn to us consultants that like to use fun, powerful tools such as REAL Studio.

I also feel that REALbasic’s popularity was also hampered by its name being a bad pun: it’s “real basic”. Lots of developers take that to mean “incredible simplistic and inappropriate for professional software development. They have no idea what the REALbasic language is capable of and have no interest in finding out. So they never learn that it is a fully object-oriented language that has far more in common with Java (or .NET) than any old-school version of Basic that they may remember. I truly hope that the new name helps improve this perception.

But even if the product is now referred to as REAL Studio, the programming language is still referred to as REALbasic. And it will take quite a bit of time before the new name is used consistently.

Two other products that I think compare well to REAL Studio are PowerBuilder and Delphi. Like the new REAL Studio branding, note that they each use separate names for the product and the programming language they use (Delphi/Objective-Pascal, PowerBuilder/PowerScript). You might also make the same case when it comes to Xcode and Objective-C. And most developers that use those tools refer to themselves as Delphi or PowerBuilder developers. So perhaps, given time, people will also stop referring to REAL Studio as REALbasic.

But even if that is the case, is REALbasic still a good name? I think that the REALbasic language has outgrown its “real basic” name. I first learned to program on an Atari 400 back in the early 80’s using Atari BASIC. I then migrated from that to structured Basics (such as GFA Basic), Pascal, C and on to a variety of programming languages. I was one of those that thought Visual Basic was a terrible language and thumbed my nose at it, although I may have been right about Visual Basic (before .NET anyway). These languages were all “real basic”.

But unlike any of the above languages, both REAL Studio and VB.NET (which Microsoft has taken to calling just Visual Basic these days) use a powerful, modern object-oriented version of Basic with a ton of sophisticated features (namespaces, instrospection, dynamic programming, delegates to name a few). For all practical purposes there is little difference between using them or using Java, C# or any other object-oriented language.

So even if the REALbasic language was once “real basic” it no longer is. I think the name ought to be changed, especially now that REAL Studio has become the product name. I suggest either choosing something meaningless and invented (like Ruby or Python; I suggest Bee) or something that truly describes what it is (like Objective-Basic¹ or Object Basic²; I suggest OObasic).

This does beg the question as to what those of us that use REALbasic or RB in our web site or product names ought to do? Does it make sense for me to rename RBDevZone to be RSDevZone? What about the Association of REALbasic Professionals (ARBP)? And REALbasic Developer Magazine? RBGarage?

How do you compete with Free?

Another complaint about REAL Studio that I hear often is that it is too expensive. Generally this is just not true because REAL Studio Professional and REAL Studio Enterprise both cost less than equivalent editions of Visual Studio, PowerBulder or Delphi. In the case of Delphi and Visual Studio there are free editions: Turbo Delphi and Visual Basic Express. And of course, Xcode is completely free for OS X developers. Microsoft also tends to make its developer tools very affordable (almost free) for startup companies.

I think it would be great for REAL could also offer a free edition of REAL Studio. Since I’m on a roll, my recommendation to REAL is that they offer REAL Studio Free Edition with the same features as REAL Studio Personal Edition except for one thing: it would be unable to compile independent executables.

I see lots of benefits to both REAL and the community with a free edition. For one, it will get a lot more people to try REAL Studio. Want to learn how to program? Use REAL Studio Free Edition. Schools could implement REAL Studio at no cost to teach programming. What a great way to get a ton of exposure! And getting students hooked on programming with REAL Studio has some major long-term benefits.

Even better, wouldn’t it be great if REAL Studio Free Edition was included with all new Macs, Dells and even Ubuntu Linux? Granted, it wouldn’t be free for REAL to do that, but think about how quickly it would increase the REAL Studio user base?

For the community, having a ton more people becoming aware of REAL Studio (and actually using it) would be a major boon. There would be more people creating sample code, more people to buy your add-ons and more people to request your consulting services. And for REAL, it means there would be more people that are now aware of REAL Studio and who might actually select it for their next project. I am sure this would lead to additional sales.

Lastly, this would be a fabulous way to promote the new REAL Studio name and finally bury the REALbasic name once and for all. There would be a ton of free press, publicity and overall good will that would be generated if REAL announced “REAL Studio Free Edition with OObasic”.

Anyway, those are my (highly opinionated) thoughts? What do you think?

² See Phoenix Object Basic.